ASUS P6X58D Premium

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Intel may have launched its X58 chipset nearly a year-and-a-half ago, but board vendors continue to come out with new product as technologies improve. This past winter, ASUS released the P6X58D Premium, a high-end offering that boasts support for both SATA 3.0 and USB 3.0, and one that just begs to be pushed hard with overclocking.

You can read our full review here and discuss it here!
 

TheFocusElf

Obliviot
I have got to say that I LOVE this board. Post time is excellent compared to EVGA x58 boards in my experience (and as Rob can attest, EVGA has released a fair share of x58 boards!). That and it always boots (another factor that prevails this board over my EVGAs. I got about 4 EVGAs returned/RMAd due to a 'FF' code on the LCD that appeared before the system posted. Now I am no engineer but FF is supposed to occur pretty late in the boot cycle.

While this has no LED, I haven't needed a little code display because it works every time. I loved EVGAs tech support, sure they always got me a new board every month it seemed I'd throw my hands up in the air over various problems (and the GTX 285 as well was off - couldn't handle much gaming at all without the screen going black... BSOD, just not blue from the same manufacturer).

Bought an Asus laptop g51vx which I think you reviewed and eventually bought the mobo as well. I posted recently about the Crucial RealSSD300 256gb Sata 3.0/6gbs drive and just caved in and bought it and will be connecting it to the SATA 3.0 port on the mobo and moving a COrsair P256 into this Asus laptop.

Very VERY pleased with this board. It certainly isn't the cheapest but it also isn't the priciest. I'd love to swap out my i7 965 for the hecta-core 980.... but I'll just be content with things as they currently are. Ah and I swore fNvidia as well!

Great work Rob, I buy most of the stuff you review! =D

Just not that 30" gateway 2000 monitor. Just couldn't do it.
 
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U

Unregistered

Guest
980X OC Results

Rob,

I have the exact same MB, 980X, 12GB Corsair CMP6GX3M3A 1600C7 @ 1600Mhz C7, with 0703 BIOS. However, I'm running it stable at 4Ghz (30 * 133) at 1.2V (default voltage). The article's OC of the processor: 4.14GHz at 1.36V is a bit disappointing since it induces a lot more electromigration at the cost of a measly .14Ghz. I'd try your tests again at my settings to see if you can make them work.

This can either be explained by a few things: sample variation, cooling (and case size), and bios version. If anything, this article has made me feel lucky and reluctant to upgrade to the beta 0808 bios.

The only difficulty I have with my setup is that sometimes when I boot, it shows only 10GB instead of 12GB, but I avoid this by putting the computer to sleep instead of shutting down completely every time. This weirdness occurs regardless of CPU OC and is more related to my memory setup (choice of sticks, and that I have 12GB installed).

Nice article otherwise.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
TheFocusElf said:
I have got to say that I LOVE this board. Post time is excellent compared to EVGA x58 boards in my experience (and as Rob can attest, EVGA has released a fair share of x58 boards!). That and it always boots (another factor that prevails this board over my EVGAs. I got about 4 EVGAs returned/RMAd due to a 'FF' code on the LCD that appeared before the system posted. Now I am no engineer but FF is supposed to occur pretty late in the boot cycle.

Whoa, what? I know of someone who had a similar issue (not sure of the LED code), but it was a P55 board. Do you know if it's a problem with EVGA's boards in general, or just a fluke with a certain batch?

TheFocusElf said:
Great work Rob, I buy most of the stuff you review! =D

Just not that 30" gateway 2000 monitor. Just couldn't do it.

You really seem to, haha. As for the monitor, I don't blame you. I don't at all regret my purchase, but some really nice models came out months later, and Gateway's ended up going way down in price a mere six months later (from $1,700 to $999). Such is the way of technology, though. My Dell 2408WFP is over two years old, but I know some people would consider it ancient by today's standards (maybe, it's still a damn sweet monitor).

Unregistered said:
I have the exact same MB, 980X, 12GB Corsair CMP6GX3M3A 1600C7 @ 1600Mhz C7, with 0703 BIOS. However, I'm running it stable at 4Ghz (30 * 133) at 1.2V (default voltage). The article's OC of the processor: 4.14GHz at 1.36V is a bit disappointing since it induces a lot more electromigration at the cost of a measly .14Ghz. I'd try your tests again at my settings to see if you can make them work.

First off, that's a great setup you have! Second, I can't easily test since I've already unhooked everything in order to do other testing (the room I have here to work only allows me two benchmarking PCs to be set up at once), but I did test with both 0808 and whatever BIOS the board had on it when I received it, and didn't see any real differences in the top overclocks I could achieve. I admit that I didn't try the second-to-last BIOS, though, so that could have an effect on it.

With the 0808, I had to go to 1.36V in order for complete stability. I simply had it on that overclock, and then kept raising the voltage until I hit something stable. Chances are good that I could have had an even more impressive overclock, but there's only so much time I can dedicate to one aspect of one review.

I'll put more time into it in the future to see if the chip is capable of more of a push. We always receive pre-launch silicon, and usually it's not up to the standards of retail chips. So as odd as it might sound, sometimes ES isn't better (that didn't used to be the case... it was a vice versa situation).
 

TheFocusElf

Obliviot
Whoa, what? I know of someone who had a similar issue (not sure of the LED code), but it was a P55 board. Do you know if it's a problem with EVGA's boards in general, or just a fluke with a certain batch?

I don't know how to classify the error, it was the first PC build I ever had, but the problem seemed VERY common (search google for EVGA FF). I just did so that I could answer your question and everything from 780 SLI (pre nehalem) and all their current offerings came up.

This is not the complete support page but they did a video on it (one that did NOT solve my problems).

http://www.evga.com/videos/evga_ff.asp
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Heh, the problem HAS to be prevelant for the company to actually create a video discussing it. It sounds more like a BIOS issue than anything, because it'd be awful strange for so many people to run into it because they didn't install their CPU or 8-pin power connector properly.

Hopefully EVGA has this issue sorted out by now.
 
J

JamesB

Guest
Differences between P6X58D Premium and P6X58D-E

I've been trying to figure out what the P6X58D Premium offers over the P6X58D-E that makes it $70 more... the only differences I can find so far are that the premium offers dual LAN Chipsets and a reset button on the motherboard for the CMOS. Hardly enough to justify $70 extra.

Does anyone know of any other differences between these two boards? Every specification I'm reading - audio, raid controller, memory, ports, etc. - seems identical!

TIA ~
James
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
Hi James. I can't speak for sure but safe bet would be the bundled accessories, cheaper chipset cooler assembly, and other peripheral changes. Dual Gbit LAN is definitely a major one to add to the pile. Also look at the back I/O panel as they usually remove one or two connectors. I am not sure today, but in years past the premium boards would offer more BIOS settings as well. Some Googling for people that bought the board can help with figuring that out.

Generally major things should remain the same, it's just less "extras" until you get down to the budget category, then they really start chopping!
 

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
Just got mine from newegg, to replace my old cheap MSI x58 board, I may upgrade from a i920 to something better also. It's going to be fun redoing the water cooling, it gets a drain and fresh fluid after a year.

Merlin
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Nice purchase man! There are too many water-coolers on these forums... I am starting to feel left out, haha. I might just have to consider getting hooked up with some WC parts...
 
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